Tagged: Marvel Legends

Hi Readers! As you know and probably lived through, we had a horrendous winter storm in NYC this past weekend and thus my planned column on the Heroes and Villains Fan Fest that took place over the weekend will have to be rescheduled as I couldn’t make it over to the show on Sunday. The show itself was truncated, both in amount of days and with the celebrities that were able to appear. For those just joining me, I’m Val and this is my column where I talk about toys and whatever else strikes my fancy- this week marks the first time that Val’s Toy Chest is available online and I will work on archiving past columns for your reading enjoyment.

So, with the Heroes and Villains convention discussion off the table for now, let’s take a look at the cool toys that are due to arrive in the near future. From DC Collectibles this week we have three new figures from the Batman: Arkham Knight videogame. Using the designs from the game, DC Collectibles brings us Azrael, an intensely creepy Man-Bat, and an unsettling Professor Pyg. Each figure is fully articulated and most come with character dedicated accessories. If you are a Star Wars action figure fan and of the Black Series in particular, we’ve gotten in the massiveFirst Order Special Forces TIE Fighterwith accompanying TIE Fighter Pilot. These are the 6″ Scale figures so you know the packaging alone is huge. The figure has the standard Hasbro articulation scheme and fits inside the impressive vehicle.

Funko always seems to have a new product mention in this column and this week is no different as I have several pieces on their way or newly arrived to the store. Just in as I was writing this article is the Batman V Superman POP Vinyl of Wonder Woman to join her cohortsBatmanand Superman. We will also have the Wacky Wobblers of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman within a few days, as well as a POP of the Jason Momoa Aquaman. Other Funko product on the way include POPs from Fairy Tail, a new Deadpool POP and more.

Sure to excite the Marvel Legends fans out there is the eagerly anticipated arrival of a brand-new series for 2016. We’ve received our shipping notice for the Captain America Marvel Legends wave which, if everything releases in a timely manner should hopefully be here by the end of this week or by early next week. In case you’ve forgotten which characters are scheduled to be in this wave, I will refresh your memory. The series consists of several first time 6″ figures including Mockingbird, Cottonmouth, Whirlwind and one of my co-worker’s most wanted figures ever: Scourge. Rounding out the wave will be figures of Captain America with an interchangeable Cap Wolf head, Sharon Carter/Agent 13 and the Taskmaster. Collect all seven figures and you can build the Red Onslaught figure.

That’s about it for me this week- catch you guys in the store! Be sure to come back here next week for toy news, TV news and whatever else I can report on. And because Winter Storm Jonas killed my plans to see Arrow‘s Stephen Amell and Katie Cassidy again, I leave you with this image, from a previous convention:

Still no Wolverine Legends, or whatever the crap they’re supposed to be called. I’m hearing September at this point, supposedly comics shops exclusives, so that’s cool. Well it’s only cool if I can snag both Emma Frost and Cyclops. Otherwise it’s the WORST THING EVER.

Remember last week when I was a huge liar and said there’s been a severe lack of new Marvel stuff out there? Hasbro’s gone done called me out by releasing a BUTT TON of new Marvel things. First up, what will ultimately phase out the Marvel Universe line (BOOO!) is the initial wave of Avengers Assemble figures. Based on the new animated series currently airing on Disney XD, the first wave consists of Iron Man (not pictured), Captain America, the Hulk, Falcon, Black Widow and the Red Skull. I bought myself the Black Widow because it’s arguably the best Widow figure to come out in the 3.75″ inch scale. Each of these figures posses somewhere between 12-15 points of articulation, fairly good sculpts and all non-Hulk figures come with S.H.I.E.L.D gear aka, spring loaded weapons that you can aim at your cat when she’s being dumb (yes I’m speaking from experience). I’m really digging the Widow figure, which I’m fairly certain it is re-worked movie Avengers figures with a non-ScarJo looking head sculpt. They’re $15 a pop, and I’m sure the short-packed characters are going to be harder and harder to find with every passing week.

The Marvel Legends line gets a HAWKGUY FIGURE BROS, BRO BRO BRO SERIOUSLY BRO HAWKGUY. That’s Tracksuit Dracula for Rocket Raccoon line, who’s the build a figure for this wave. Includes is Black Panther, 2 members of the Wrecking Crew (I think Wrecker and Pile Driver, hell if I’m gonna google them), 90s Jim Lee Era Jean Grey, the 2012 Scarlet Spider and Hawkguy….Hawkeye if you’ve ignored my sage-like words to buy the book and am not in on the joke. Note, the variant figures will probably ship in the new few weeks- Pile Drive, Heroic Age Hawkeye, White Phoenix Jean Grey, and Age of Apocalypse Jean Grey. I’m not too crazy on Jean’s face sculpt with the final product, but the rest of the line is fine. Obviously I am a big fan of the Hawkguy, which means he too was bought this week. These figures are more in the 20 point range of articulation, and go for about $25 bucks a pop. I’d grab em as soon as possibly, except maybe for 90s Jean, and hope that the Phoenix version is better. Oh, and the Blade/Punisher figure from last year was re-released, now with a red skull on his chest to mirror his current look in Thunderbolts.

And to complete the Marvel trifecta is a quartet of new Marvel Universe figures. Spider-villains Rhino and Mysterio make their Marvel Universe debut with a pair of sharp figures, and are joined by a iconic take on Captain America, and Elektra, who I also think is making her MU debut. I don’t know, I think to ignore Elektra whenever she’s mentioned. But each of these figures are great, ESPECIALLY Mysterio, with his big dumb fishbowl. Not unlike the AA line, these also are going for $15, and are worth buying immediately because they’re gonna be harder and harder to fine as the series is phased out. And again, MYSTERIO PEOPLE, WHY WOULDN’T YOU WANT TO BUY HIM AND HAVE YOUR SPIDER-MAN/MEN ASSAULT HIM?

Any long-time FPNYC blog reader knows by now that I kind of favor Marvel when it comes to the big 2 Comic Publishers. I try not to be biased, as both publishers have their share of faults (:: cough :: Jack Kirby got screwed ::cough:::), but I love their characters as well as a ton of the creators working on them, and the Marvel movies have been pretty enjoyable so far. That, and occasionally they have a event I care about that seems like a ton of fun, despite having a weak premise. AvX (Avengers vs. X-Men) is this year’s “NOTHING WILL BE THE SAME” event , and unlike “Fear Itself“, I’m actually enjoying ( and buying) it. While the majority of the Avengers and X-books tie into it, you can just read the main AvX series without having to buy a ton of tie-ins. However, if you’re in it for the fights, “AvX:Vs” may be more of your thing, as it’s a bunch of Marvel’s best artists drawing expanded battles from the series. Plus since both books are running $4 and issue, it comes with a free digital download code to redeem. so at least you’re getting 2 copies of the books basically.

So now that I’m done shamelessly plugging Marvel’s big event book, let me plug the latest line of Marvel Legends figures. Wave 2 is out in stores, and MAN, is it flying off of the shelves pretty much everywhere. Bucky-Captain America and Drax were the first figures to drop, as they were the only 2 without variants. The remaining 5 figures are now dropping, and all but 1 have some sort of variant, which is kind of cool, as the majority of them are more than a simple color swap. Take Spidey for example. This is HARDLY the first time your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has gotten the Legends treatment. HOWEVER, this is the first time he’s been available in his “Big Time” green/black outfit, or his Future Foundation costume. I really like both costumes to be honest, and am legit torn which one to purchase. Spidey, like Modern Thor before him, has no accessories or build-a-figure pieces though, so if you’re not in love with this costumes, you can skip him.

It’s been awhile hasn’t it FPNYC faithful! I would have written sooner, but I had a trinity of things keeping me away from blogging as of late, as my ass was in Boston earlier for PAX East, Chicago over a week ago for C2E2 and then celebrated my 3rd year of marriage this past weekend with the Mrs. But I’m back for the foreseeable future, here to pimp out the newest toys and collectibles FPNYC has to offer. We’ve got a ton of stuff to cover, and not all of it’s Marvel related! Just of lot of it, because man, they have the Avengers’ license and that will be printing a lot of people some serious green.

After releasing some awesome Batman, Final Fantasy XIII-2 & Street Fighter IV figures earlier this year, Square Enix has decided to take a trip back to 1998 for their latest figure: Cyborg Ninja (formerly Gray Fox) from the legendary Playstation One classic “Metal Gear Solid.” It’s been a while since Ninja has gotten the plastic treatment (I think McFarlane toys was the first and only company to release a poseable/non-gasaphon Ninja) and man, Square went to town on this figure in terms of detailing and sculpt. Square definitely captures the robotic feel of Ninja, and the paint job for the figure is insane. As far as accessories go, Ninja is limited to only a katana and a railgun, which is kinda of lacking compared to other Play Arts Kai releases, especially since it also lacks variant hands. However, it’s still and amazing figure in its own right. Ninja isn’t the only MGS1 figure getting the Play Arts Kai treatment, as Solid Snake is due out any week, and Meryl should be out within a few weeks/month (Square really needs to clarify this). Ninja retails for about $60, which is the average price for the Kai figure, and is available now. Continue reading →

Just like Hasbro promised, the Marvel Legends line has returned to shelves across the country! I can’t same I’m surprised by the fact that some people thought we were just going to get Marvel Universe from now on. While I like MU, they’ll never be Legends, and the Legends line just has way too much of a following to stay dead. Wisely, Hasbro started the line out with a plethora of new characters and new outfits, rather than giving us ones we’ve seen time and time again. For the time being, it seems as though the Legends line is off to a good start.

Unsurprisingly for Hasbro, one of the figures in Wave 1 was of course, Iron Man. Hasbro seems to put out at least one Iron Man figure in every wave these days. I’m not complaining, but it just gets a bit annoying when you see five thousand Iron Man figures sitting on the shelves and nobody buying them. He’s now joined the ranks of Spider-man and Wolverine, for serious.

Anyway, this new Iron Man figure comes in the Extremis Armor, which we actually haven’t seen in the scale yet! So yes, while it may be YET ANOTHER Iron Man figure, Hasbro was kind enough to do something that hasn’t been done before.

The figure is very tall and lean, much different than the other Iron Man figures I have, who typically come on the more muscular side. I actually like it a little more here, but only with the comic-styling. I prefer the bulkiness of the movie figures overall.

His paint job is very well done, much better than the typical Legends fare in my opinion. The red is shiny and striking, and the accompanying gold only accentuates that. Even the work on the helmet is pretty decent.

One problem I’ve had with a lot of Iron Man figures is how intrusive the shoulder armor can be. Thankfully that isn’t a problem here! There’s enough “give” in the design that it doesn’t get in the way and moves pretty freely. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly an improvement.

His head retains the classic hinge-style joint ML figures are famous for, and thanks to that and his torso joint he can do a “flying” pose without any issues.

I do have some problems with the legs, however. Instead of using the typical ML-style hip joint that even most 4” figures have these days, he has a more traditional hinge joint. I’m just not into it that much, and the circles on his hip armor get in the way, though those can be moved easily enough. The swivel joint is now at the thighs, which works from a design standpoint, but personally, I’d rather have the old hip style back.

Only two hands are included with him (open palm and fist). I don’t know why, but I was expecting a little more. Maybe I’m just spoiled by the 6” Iron Man 2 figures.

I welcome the return of Marvel Legends. I don’t “use” them as much as Universe, sure, but they make great display pieces. I give him my recommendation. Come to FPNYC for all your new Marvel Legends needs!

Alright, so after a few more articles on Joes and whatnot, it’s time to go back to another figure from Toybiz’s Marvel Legends days. Let’s look at another girl, and the first lady of the Avengers… Wasp.

Wasp came in series 15 of the Toybiz Marvel Legends, packaged with the legs for the MODOK Build-a-Figure. And like a lot of other figures in the later years of Marvel Legends, she came with a variant. Two, in fact! Two really nice variants. Neither of which I have. One came in blue and the other in red, both with the classic hairstyle, with the mass release coming in her most recent outfit with short hair. The variants proved pretty popular, and fetch pretty decent prices on the aftermarket, with the mass-release being very easy to find. And with good reason.

At its core this figure isn’t bad at all. For the most part, the body is well-designed and she’s as posable as you’d expect any Legend to be. But there are a few problems with the sculpt that I’ll be getting to. Continue reading →

::: Coughs for several minutes before vomiting up several organs of varying importance:::

Once again, New York Comic Con has come and gone, this time giving me a case of the death, along with a ton of freebies, like posters, shirts and comics that I would never buy. The con was awesome and if you want a recap of what I did that doesn’t involve toys, I suggest you check out the article I typed up for BleedingCool.com, which can be found right here: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/10/18/cosplaying-with-seth-green-chris-troys-nycc/

As for toy news from NYCC that you should care about:

– Next year’s Avengers toyline will have figures in-scale with Marvel Universe/ Marvel Movie figures as well as Marvel Legends sized figures. (3.5″ and 6″ to those unfamiliar with what the hell I’m talking about) On display were Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Hulk, & Loki for both lines, in addition to Black Widow, Thor, and Nick Fury for the 3.5″ figures.)

-The 2nd wave of the returning Marvel Legends line will consist of Big Time Spider-Man, Daken, Madam Hydra, Fantomex, Bucky, Captain America, Madam Masaque, Thunderball, and Build-a-Figure Arnim Zola. As good as the Avenger figures looks, these looks amazing, and I will end up buying WAY too many of them.

-DC Direct & Mattel both had “Arkham City”-based figures on display. Mattel’s will be 2-packs, and will feature characters like Harley Quinn, Robin, Batman, and the Joker. DC Direct, is making single cared figures of Batman and literally ALL his villains from the game, as well as oversized deluxe characters from the first game like Venom-Joker, Killer Croc, & Bane. Also Catwoman, who I guess we can consider an alley at this point.

-Square Enix also had Arkham Asylum figures on display, Batman and the Joker of course. Also, photos of an armored Batman & Harley Quinn. In addition to these, there were Halo Play Arts Kai, Deus Ex: Human Revolution (which we just got in!), Serrah from Final Fantasy 13-2, as well as fully painted prototypes of the new Street Fighter 4 line, consisting of Ryu, Chun-Li, Akuma, and Cammy. Without a doubt, these are the BEST looking Street Fighter figures to date, so expect me to rave about Cammy when she drops in 2012. Continue reading →

I’ve always been kind of skeptical of McFarlane’s toys. As a kid I owned a few of the Terminator 3 figures they did. They were very… okay. Their sculpts were fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but they would have either one of two problems: No joints or joints that just fell apart. I just feel that when your toy is called an “action figure,” and there isn’t much “action” it can do, well you’re doing it wrong. But then, they got the Halo license… and like Mega Bloks before it, this seemed to be the thing that redeemed them in my eyes, and in some of the eyes of the public, I think.

I made my first Halo Reach purchase the blue Spartan Mark V, for two reasons: 1. The Mark V is the most “basic” Spartan, and 2. It’s Caboose from Red vs. Blue. Seriously! In the current season his armor looks exactly like this. I really hope they end up doing more members of the cast, though I’d be content with just Doc, Lopez, and Donut. Maybe some of the Freelancers. Either way, it’s good to see one member of the cast get a toy, whether it was intentional or not.

Caboose (yes, I’ll be calling him that for the duration of the review) uses the standard buck body for most of the Reach Spartans. It’s a pretty decent body, but it still has a few flaws. The new hips aren’t as articulated as the Halo 3 ones were, but they look nice. I wish they went with a Marvel Legends-esque hip style. Also, what’s up with the hole in the waist? I imagine some armor piece is supposed to go there, but it just looks awkward going uncovered like that.

One major improvement over the Halo 3 figures is the joints themselves. Most of the hinge joints are now “clicky” joints with ridges. These are much less likely to break or shear. Only one of my Halo 3 figures actually broke; it was one of my 3 red EoDs and it was just his hand that broke off—a simple fix. Continue reading →

For awhile now, I’ve been wanting to do some reviews of older toys; namely stuff from more than five years ago. Covering new stuff is great, don’t get me wrong, but there are plenty of places that do that! I love picking up random toys and taking a good look at them, especially ones from our childhoods or ones that have just been lost in the sands of time. Since I can really only cover stuff that Forbidden Planet NYC carries, I figured it was time for me to cover a soon-returning line that is a staple of comic stores everywhere: Marvel Legends.

Psylocke was my first Marvel Legend. What can I say, I like female superheroes, even if their characters get completely destroyed far too often (I’m looking at you, DC). I try my best to make up superhero teams that are more than just “white males only”. In retrospect, though, I wish I picked someone else for my first Marvel Legend. Psylocke just… isn’t all that great.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Psylocke uses the standard Marvel Legends female body, if there was one? Thankfully, she’s one of the later Marvel Legends, so she doesn’t have the bizarre hips that earlier females like Elektra had. She has all of that crazy articulation I came to expect from the later years of the Toybiz Marvel Legends, albeit lacking articulated fingers like the male figures. Usually this kind of thing would bother me, but in cases like this it doesn’t bother me, since I imagine sculpting such small fingers would be a complete nightmare. They’d probably get broken easily, too. The hands she gets instead are nice, but I wish she got energy effect parts or hands that could hold swords… or, well, accessories in general.

I’ve come to find that Psylocke is rather cheap on the aftermarket, and it’s pretty obvious why: her face sculpt is terrible. I don’t know what it is about Marvel Females, but so far the only one I have with a good face is wearing a mask. Psylocke’s face just looks too… old. Isn’t she supposed to be young? She looks like she’s 40! She also has that weird no-ears look that far too many of the females have. It’d be more passable if her hair was styled differently, but it just looks like she’s an alien.

My biggest issue with Psylocke, and really the Toybiz Legends in general, is the TERRIBLE quality control. I know Toybiz was a small company, but damn, some of these paint apps are knockoff-quality. Just look at her back! Was something covering that part? It’s bad on the thigh, as well, but not as noticeable.

Mine also came assembled VERY badly. Not too long after opening her, her stomach pretty much fell apart. There was no glue or friction or… anything holding it together. I managed to fix it, but that’s just such a strange thing to have break.

Yes, it sounds like I hate this figure but I really don’t. She was my first Legend, so she holds a special place in my heart. Aside from the face, her sculpt is pretty good; it’s just the face sculpt and bad paint apps that really bring her down. Still, she tends to run pretty cheap these days, so if you’re a big fan of hers or if you want to complete your Mojo, she’s worth coming into FPNYC and looking for!

Bandai likes to release suits based on the series they appear in, like, for a period of time, they do a bunch of suits from say, Zeta, mixed in with suits from Char’s Counterattack or 0080. But the suits that get releases always come in some weird order, like don’t you think that a GM Kai would’ve come out about six months after the Powered GM? Most of the parts were all there! I mean the Ball came out how many years after they finished the original series? Geez. Continue reading →

As we speak, Toy Fair is going down up over in the Javitis Center (home of NYCC!) in NYC. While I’m still trying to compile images and info for the FPNYC blog, I’ve already seen some of the new products I know I’ll be spending my money on throughout 2011, as Square Enix has shown images from the new wave of Dissidia Final Fantasy Trade AND Play Arts, while Hasbro and Marvel are already showing off a new line of 6 Inch Iron Man Marvel Legends figures, as well as a ton of new Marvel Universe releases, including 90s character like Darkhawk and the Scarlett Spider. Needless to say, there’s a ton of info to be shared over the next couple of weeks, so make sure you keep this site bookmarked!

Speaking of comics, let’s look at some recently released DC products. While DC Direct releases a ton of product, as well as the DCUC line from Mattel, several other companies release products that DC nor Mattel cover. We’re going to take a look at some of these releases, as well as some DCU releases too! Continue reading →

SHAMELESS PLUG: I’ll be speaking at MangaNEXT this weekend in East Brunswick, NJ at the “Mecha: A love letter” panel from 12:30-1:30 pm on Saturday. Swing by and mention this blog to receive a free high five!

Unlike their “Distinguished Competition”, it seems Marvel figures have always been on the toy shelves. And not just one character like DC with Batman, but a variety of figures from the mighty Marvel U! Toy Biz (back when they had the license) banged out a impressive number of characters through various lines in the 1990s through early to mid 2000s and now that Hasbro has the license, they’re slowing coming into their own. Today’s article will look at what there is to buy Marvel wise, and how much they vary from the DC Universe in terms of collectible.

Marvel Comic Select

Price: About $20-$25 on average.

This is the closest you’ll get to an in-house line for Marvel comics (Thinks DC Direct for Marvel). Originally introduced to create collectible figures Toy Biz usually didn’t handle, these bigger figures are usually released one at a time quarterly, the rare exception being when Iron Man 2 dropped and we got both an Iron Man and War Machine figure. Over the years, the line has been able to beat Hasbro to the punch when it came to premiering new versions of established characters (examples being Bucky-Cap, modern Thor and Red Hulk), and the upcoming Deadpool figures (pictured) is probably one of the best sculpted figures in the line to date.

Pros: Awesome sculpts, solid paint jobs, decent price when you factor in size, cool bases packaged with the figures, does not make the same 2 characters over and over again like DC Direct, although it is guilty of making a few different Spideys, Wolverines, Hulks and Iron Man. Continue reading →